Possible T5 grow- looking for some help from the CFL masters

I had posted in the indoor section that I was thinking about getting a grow tent. I'm doing a lowryder grow with cfl's but I know that I need to improve my setup.

My plans may have changed now. My friends father has a six bulb T5 setup sitting in the basement that he doesn't plan on using anymore.


My idea is to make my own tent out of pvc and panda film, use the T5 setup from start to finish, and if necessary add some extra cfl's for flowering. The tent would be about 4.5 x 2.5 x 6 ft.

The question is, would this work well? Does anyone know what kind of heat output the T5's have?

Here's a thread on RIU where they claim T5's are no hotter than cfl's, but I've never used them myself.

Less heat is always a plus. I'm just wondering how well the T5's would do for flowering. The posts I have seen where they were used looked promising, but I also realize that one persons grow doesn't mean mine would have the same results.